There and back again and there and back again and party time!

Every year I hear people lamenting about how busy and stressful and crazy the holidays are--with shopping, cooking, parties, traveling, gift wrapping, standing in line at the post office and a myriad of other tasks that creep onto our to-do lists.  And every year I don't quite understand why people are so stressed out!  Until I experienced trying to do these tasks with an 11 month old.  Ahh.  Now I get it.  Shopping, gift wrapping, planning a Christmas party, baking treats....all are so much harder with a tiny "helper" present!  It was a bit of a full month for us.  We had multiple Christmas parties to both attend and help throw between the staff party, the MOPS party, the youth advisor's party, the junior high party and the senior high party.  We had gifts to buy, gifts to make, gifts to wrap--all of which took place after the munchkin was asleep.  And then we traveled with our sweet little non-sleeper.  Don't get me wrong, it was all worth it, and getting to see both of our families was so amazing, we wouldn't have traded it for anything!  But it's mid-January and I am just now finally feeling as if I'm catching up on sleep!

Our first stop was Minneapolis where Aidan and I headed a few days before Charles was able to take off.  We spent a week there playing with cousins, baking, playing board games, taking turns watching the kids and just generally hanging out.  Aidan loved having Lily & Brooke to play with, and tried his hardest to keep up with them.  He fully explored the lower shelves of Grandma's pantry and tupperware drawers, completely removing every item from these spaces more than once.  He tried his harest to get the baby gate open so he could go down the stairs, and he nearly succeeded.  As Nathan said "that gate has worked fine for 3 years, then Aidan shows up and all of a sudden it's not baby proof anymore!"  (Yes, I think he's a bit of an engineer at one year old already...)  Bath time in Grandma's big bath tub, dancing to Papa's silly turkey, and playing with new Christmas gifts rounded out his time in the midwest.  Because we were traveling on Christmas day, we pretended like the 24th was Christmas day and just moved everything up a day.  Santa came the night of the 23rd, presents were opened throughout the day on the 24th culminating in church that afternoon.  On the morning of the 25th we did something none of us had ever done--the 4 of us "kids" went to go see the movie Les Mis at 9:30 AM.  Rather than popcorn we enjoyed our hot mochas while watching Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway bring to life a story we've all grown to love over the years.

Lily spent the week regaling us with her one-liners as only Lily can do.  My personal favorites were: "Auntie Sarah, you are doing such a good job taking care of baby Aidan!" (Thank you Lily, we all need cheerleaders in life!) and "Maybe Gramma Nan is out shopping in heaven." (Maybe, but if you know Gramma Nan, you know that is NOT how she's spending her time in heaven!) and "What are these cookies Grandma?"  "Those are lady fingers."  "Oh.  Well can boys eat them?"  and "Do the stars have eyes?"  "No I don't think stars have eyes."  "Well in the song it says the stars in the heavens look down where he lay. How do they look without eyes?"  I love that kid.  A lot!

We flew home for less than 48 hours, long enough to repack and try to adjust back to west coast time before catching the bus to LAX for our flight to Honolulu!  We were so so blessed by the amazing and generous gift of a week in Hawaii with Charles' family.  There were 17 of us there for a week of sand, snorkeling  exploring, and even some surfing.  Unfortunately several of the crew ended up with the 24 hour stomach bug, but thankfully Aidan, Charles and I had all had it in October and that made us somewhat immune to it.  We discovered that Aidan has a lot of his daddy in him and LOVES the sand and water more than anything.  He went nuts trying to get in the ocean every time he saw it.  We enjoyed an amazing polynesian show, a lovely luau, some delicious wine, grilled steaks, and board games with the older nieces and nephew.  The highlight for me was having amazing family members watch Aidan for an evening so Charles and I could escape to Waikiki for a lovely dinner at the top of a tower there--with amazing views and really good food.  (My husband also picked out and bought a sundress all on his own for me to wear that night--something he's never done before which was so sweet!)  It was so wonderful having so many people there to love on Aidan and care for him--I love that he's able to get to know his family even though we live so far away!  

We had one week after returning home before my family flew in for Aidan's first birthday, and one week to put together a party.  It was a busy week!  I felt like we had suitcases and stuff everywhere, no clue how to decorate a rather unattractive fellowship hall, and a baby who decided to start teething as he was trying to readjust to being back in his own bed and own time zone.  None of us slept much last week!  But his party was so fun, and it was a great weekend celebrating him and the ways he has grown in the past year.  We tried keeping things pretty small and low key--just about 20 people who know us and Aidan well, with homemade decorations from construction paper and photos of him.  We were so blessed to have a great community around us to celebrate this milestone!  

Now life has returned to "normal."  I don't have any more parties (Christmas or birthday!) to plan, our MOPS speaker schedule is finally filled out for the semester, I'm home for several weeks without traveling anywhere, and I don't have an insane to do list.  It feels absolutely luxurious.  I want to write a bit more, I finally picked up my book that I had set down for 3 weeks (our book club meets next Monday and I still have about 240 pages to go!), I want to enjoy days with my little one where I don't drag him on errands--where we can just go for a walk to look at the trees and birds or where I can sit on the floor with him and play with him rather than trying to merely keep him distracted while I quickly get something done.  I'm so grateful for all we were able to do in the past month.  And I am so grateful for this next month of "nothing."  Until I head to Denver over President's Day weekend that is....:)

28 Weeks--Hello Third Trimester! And Hello New Home!

Wow! What a whirlwind! One month ago we didn't have any job offers on the table, didn't know where we were moving to (although we knew we'd be leaving Seattle, there weren't jobs available up there), didn't know how all the health insurance would work out/transfer so I could deliver our baby boy in a hospital here in LA, not in the northwest, and had no idea what we were going to do with our house. It's kind of amazing how God works sometimes. A job as a youth director literally fell into my husband's lap (thanks to some great friends who already work at this church and were looking out for us), we flew down, interviewed, were offered the job two hours later, and three days later had accepted. In the past couple weeks we have packed our entire house (except for the furniture being used to "stage" the house for potential buyers), moved all our belongings into our garage and out of cupboards, closets, and drawers, put our house on the market, loaded up what would fit into our car, drove down I-5 and made it from Seattle to LA in less than 2 days, and Charles has now started work at our new church. Phew! No wonder I feel a bit exhausted and disoriented! An older couple from the church has graciously allowed us to stay with them for a few weeks while I apartment hunt for us, and we have already been invited to dinner with a couple our own age in the congregation (we're excited to have friends!).

Our little man is now the length of a Chinese cabbage apparently--about 14.5 inches long I think? He's getting bigger!

Everything about our beginning here has felt different. Everything. Those overseeing the youth program have re-scheduled big events til spring to give Charles a chance to acclimate to the culture and people here before being asked to plan a talent show for the youth (which was on the calendar for Nov.) Which is pretty much the opposite of what happened at our last congregation. They've dialed their program calendar way back to give him time to get his feet wet here, I think our first big event is winter camp in January maybe? (And it's over the weekend of my due date, so I for sure won't be going, and we'll see if he gets to go for a day or something!) We haven't been met by any "threats" of "this is what we always do and you need to do it the exact same way" which has been SO refreshing. Last night was the first junior high youth group we experienced and from the beginning it kind of looked like it was going to be a bit of a disaster. He found out at the last minute that several of his normal volunteers who were going to lead the night couldn't make it, (and he'd never met any of these kids), and that the normal space they do youth group in was being taken over by the children's ministry program folks setting up for a giant Halloween haunted house. Our senior pastor wandered by, immediately acknowledged the chaos, apologized profusely for this being our first experience and said it was fine if the whole evening was a disaster, he wasn't worried, we'd get back into a rhythm next week. That kind of grace practically brought tears to our eyes--the lack of pressure we felt was amazing. And the night ended up going really well--the volunteers who were there said it was fantastic, the kids seemed to have fun, and we'll re-group for next week!

I've spent the week filling out health insurance applications, researching doctors, and apartment hunting. Which has been a bit of a long process, but I actually think I found a place for us last night! I'm taking Charles to see it this afternoon, and if he likes it we'll be filling out an application today. It's 1 block from the church, which is going to be SO helpful with only one car and a baby on the way (especially on those Sundays he needs to be at church for both services--I can walk the munchkin home for naptime and not have to worry about waking him up to go pick my husband up when he's ready to come home--same for bedtime on youth group nights that run late). So I'm keeping my fingers crossed this works out.

Anyways, I think that's about it for now--we have a full weekend of various Halloween related events (have I mentioned that I hate Halloween with a passion? I do. I seriously hate it). and our first high school youth group Sunday evening. We're SO thrilled to be here even though we miss Seattle friends (and I miss the Seattle weather!) already. We'll be back up there in about 2 weeks though to pack up our house and for my baby shower which I am super excited for! It's been so fun looking at little baby things and registering for some of them for this little man :)

And I'll leave you with some way cute photos that make me smile a lot :)

A pumpkin just Lily's size!

My mom finally headed home on Tuesday after 5 weeks in Providence being Gramma--I know she was tired, but I also know she loved the time she got with Lily, and then with Brooke! I love this photo!And my very favorite photo--I LOVE that they are holding hands :)

Have a great holiday weekend everyone! Hope you enjoy Halloween more than I do!

Weeks 25, 26, & 27! Lots of Life Updates!

The 3rd trimester starts on Sunday--that's crazy to me! The second trimester does feel like it was really long--a LOT happened in the past 13 weeks in our lives, so I know we still have a ways to go until we meet our little guy, but we also still have a lot of things in life left to get settled before he arrives, so I'm okay that we have another 13 weeks to go! I realize I haven't written each week in the past few weeks, but here's the scoop on our lives and baby in the past 3 weeks!

Week 25--our little dude hit the weight of a rutabaga. No, I don't know what a rutabaga is or how to cook/eat it, but I do know that a rutabaga is about a pound and a half, and apparently that's what Baby K weighed two weeks ago. This week was discerning week for us, as we headed home from our trip to Los Angeles with a job offer on the table. We loved the church, our new senior pastor, their vision for youth ministry (it actually looks like FUN at this place instead of so much work!), and the idea of being back with friends who know both of us really well. We weren't so sure about the financial piece of living in Los Angeles. We sat with it for a few days, we spent time together in the SPU chapel sitting in silence, separately journaling our thoughts and questions. We researched health insurance rates and rent rates. We received a super supportive email from my dad that week as well, reminding us that the first and most important thing to discern is the call itself. Is this a church and community we can see ourselves part of? Is this is a senior pastor we can work well with who actually will support Charles? Would we be happy living there? He reminded us that if the answers to those questions were "yes" then part of trusting God is trusting that the finances will work themselves out somehow, but probably shouldn't be the #1 reason to turn down an otherwise great job offer. He reminded us that once our little guy is a couple months old I can always look for part time work to help with the bills, something I'd love to do anyway (even if it's taking in someone else's baby while I'm watching ours too, or working part time for a church in the area or for Fuller again). There are ways to make finances work. We learned here that while our financial situation was stable, the church was not and that wreaked havoc on our marriage, our physical health, our emotional health, and even our spiritual health. Choosing a job based on financial stability doesn't seem to be the right answer all the time! We were definitely grateful for his counsel and words of wisdom & support, and after a couple days we accepted the job offer! After 4 months of not being able to answer the "what's next?" question, we were thrilled to share with people that we'll be heading back to a place that was so rich for both of us in our time there.

Week 26! This was a HUGE week for us! Baby has grown as long as an English cucumber (the long skinny ones!) He's busy working on his lung development and the maturing of his reproductive organs, and the little dude has reached about 14 inches long from head to heel.

Baby and I started the week off by spending Sunday afternoon enjoying a day with my girl friends up here celebrating Lynn's upcoming wedding! Seven of us headed over to Bainbridge Island on a ferry for a gorgeous afternoon of wine tasting (well some of us tasted!), wandering the cute town, and enjoying an incredible meal at the restaurant Hitchcock. Everything we ordered was to die for. Their menu is based on what's in season, so everything is ridiculously fresh and gourmet--my kind of place! I enjoyed the ricotta gnocchi (gnocchi are like dumplings made out of flour, and in this case, ricotta) mixed with pine nuts, yellow summer squash, blue cheese and parsley. It was amazing. (This photo is the 7 of us from Darbee's wedding earlier in the summer. I will miss these amazing women like crazy when we do move and have been so grateful for another season of life spent with them here in Seattle).

The other super cool thing we did during week 26 was attend a live taping of a radio show/podcast called The Kindling's Muse. Every month at Hales Pub and Brewery in the upstairs banquet room, a group of people come together to discuss a given topic in the theological world. This past Monday they were discussing Rob Bell's book Love Wins. Dick Staub, local guru of theology and pop culture hosts the show and has usually 3 guests on to talk about the topic of the night. This past week two were Seattle Pacific professors and one was our good friend Bryan Burton, associate pastor at the church we just left and professor at Fuller Northwest. Bryan invited us to come and we jumped at the chance. It was awesome! The audience of about 70 sits at tables and can order food and drinks as they listen (and submit questions to the panel) and the theologians discuss the night's topic. Food, wine, beer, theology, community being formed as guests interact at their tables...we LOVED it! If you're ever bored, check out some of their podcasts, you can listen right on line, and the conversations are fantastic and thought provoking.

Also up in week 26....the infamous prenatal glucose screening. Da da dum. I'd been hearing about this test for years now as friends of mine have experienced it, and I knew the day would come when I too would get to drink the kool aid. For those of you who either had kids way before they did this, or who haven't yet had the pleasure, allow me to enlighten you :) Everyone I've talked to did theirs a bit differently, but mine was a 2 hour process. I headed in to the doctor's office first thing Tuesday morning having not eaten anything since the night before. They drew my blood to see what my numbers were while fasting, and then handed me a 10 oz fruit punch flavored drink with 50 grams of sugar in it (a teaspoon you add to your coffee has about 4 grams of sugar). You have to get the drink down in about 4 minutes and then sit there for an hour when they'll draw your blood again, and then sit for another hour and get a third blood test. It's basically to see how your body is processing sugar while pregnant and to screen for any gestational diabetes. I was doing okay until I visited with the doctor half way through the test and she had me lay down to take the fetal heart rate. When I sat back up the room started spinning and needless to say I lost all the fruit punch in my stomach. Which means, I had to start all over again the next day with the fasting, blood tests, and drinking the kool aid again. Not fun. But day 2 went much better & I do not have signs of diabetes, so for that I am super grateful. I am also grateful to not have to drink that stuff again til baby #2 comes along some day!

On Thursday of week 26 we became Aunt & Uncle again!! Sweet Brooke Elizabeth was born to my little sister! She weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and is healthy and doing fantastic--praise God! Apparently her birth was a super great experience, exactly the kind of birth experience Megan wanted, and my mom was over the moon that they'd asked her to be in the room this time when Brooke arrived (she and dad were in the waiting room when Lily was born). Dad was on Lily-duty for the day at home and brought her up to the hospital to meet her "baby Brooke" when Megs was out of delivery. So grateful everything went well, and now I'm working on figuring out when I can get back there in the midst of our moving to meet my newest niece!

Lily meets her baby sister and gives her sweet kisses!

This picture pretty much makes me tear up every time I see it. We have an almost identical one of me "holding" Megan when she was born.

A baby sister can never have too many kisses!

Pretty much the happiest Papa in the world! We told him he needs to grow that 3rd arm between now and January for our little one!

Saturday was a day of celebration! We celebrated Lynn & Adam's wedding at probably the coolest venue ever! The top of the Columbia Tower (the tallest building in Seattle) is where their ceremony & reception were held--it was incredible! Such a fun time with friends that continued late into the evening after the wedding at a local bowling alley. This was later that night bowling--I learned that pregnancy can really throw off your ability to bowl. Not that I was great to begin with, but I am usually better than I was!

Also on Saturday was Lily's 2nd birthday! We video chatted and she told us it was "happy birthday Lily's turn!" She told me that she got to eat cake, and open presents and I asked what she got. Her response was "baby Brooke!" Not a bad birthday gift! She also laid down on the bed next to Brooke to show me who was the bigger sister :) Happy birthday sweet Lily, you've made all our lives more joyful and richer than we could ever imagine!

She got a bike for her birthday! And her special "bike hat" that she showed me how she puts on whenever she wants to ride. Such a big girl!

Papa helping her figure it out

Yum! Chocolate cake!

We spent the rest of week 26 packing stuff up and getting our house spotless and staged perfectly for it to go on the market this past weekend. We even have our own website our realtor made us. Wanna buy a sweet townhouse? Click here!

Week 27! Well, technically week 27 just started yesterday so not too much excitement has happened yet! Baby boy is now weighing in at about 2 pounds! (About the weight of a head of cauliflower) and is developing his little brain more and more each day. He's opening and closing his eyes, moving around a TON, listening to our voices, and practicing his sucking reflex by sucking on his cute little fingers. I am eating everything in sight--amazing my husband with my constant requests for seconds. It's our last full week in Seattle together, Saturday we leave to begin our trip south and once we get there Charles will begin work and I'll begin looking for a place for us to live. The church is graciously hosting us with a family for a few weeks until we have a place to call home. Also on the list of things to do immediately? Find a new doctor since we'll be delivering this little one down in LA now. So we're trying to clean out our fridge this week--eating random things for meals because that's what we have on hand, we're seeing some friends, continuing with our packing, and praying someone wants to buy our house soon. That's pretty much it for this week, we're getting more and more excited about our new church and community waiting for us in LA!

Phew! If you're still reading, congratulations! It's been a busy few weeks, but we are so grateful our little man is healthy, kicking around in there, and growing just like he should!

Week 14--When Life Hands You Lemons...

Hello second trimester! And hello vacation! Week 14 ends tomorrow & I am just now getting around to posting this week's update, it's been a full week! Baby K entered the second trimester last Friday and is now coming in at the size of a lemon--about 3 1/2 inches long from the top of his little head to the bottom of his cute little baby butt, and weighs about 1.5 ounces. Crazy to think that something still so small has caused me to gain more than 1.5 ounces! Our little munchkin is busy sucking his thumb this week, and practicing his facial expressions--and even though I still can't feel anything he's apparently busy moving all over the place in there! I got to feel my niece Brooke kick my hands this week from inside Megan, and that was super cool, I'm looking forward to feeling my own little one flutter around :)

Like I said, it's been a bit of a crazy week for us--but full of great people and good times! Last Wednesday we flew to Providence to get ourselves back to the east coast, and turned around to fly to Kentucky on Thursday to meet up with my husband's family for a long weekend at his sister's home. Our 9 month old niece was being baptized so both sides of Rodd and Carroll's family gathered to celebrate the event, which was very fun--it was great to finally meet Rodd's family!

We had a blast with the 4 kids--playing Wii, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, launching golf balls in their backyard with a catapault their dad made, and just hanging out.Us with our beautiful nieceSeriously, can you get any cuter??On Monday we flew back to Providence to spend the rest of the week here with Megan's family. We've been babysitting Lily while her parents work, and have been cracking up at her words and phrases she's been learning. She has quite the vocabulary for a 1 1/2 year old! Playing Dominion. I love how much they love playing games!Delicious homemade BBQ pizzas (or "pizzys!" as Lily calls them) that we enjoyed last night.We're here until Saturday when we head home for a couple days before heading down to LA next Wednesday. We'll keep ya posted as we travel the country this next month!

Well hello there little plum! And happy 4th of July!

It's been a fun week around here in our household, definitely a different pace from the past 7 months! Baby K has hit the size of a plum as he or she is starting his 12th week of life (almost done with trimester #1!), and is starting to make me look a teensy bit on the pudgy side. A friend of mine said about two weeks ago "if I didn't know you were pregnant, I never would say anything, but since I know, I'll just say you definitely are getting a tiny bump! If someone didn't know you well they'd never know, but to those of you who know you well, we can see it!" I had the realization the other day that I have the world's shortest torso. I thought the only problems this was going to cause in life was shopping for jeans (they are never long enough for my legs!) but on Wednesday I realized "umm....where's this baby going to grow?? There is nowhere for it to go but straight out!" I told my good friend Missy I wasn't sure how I felt about this and her response was to jump up and down and squeal "I feel very cute about it!!" So we'll see over the next few weeks how this little bump starts to form!

Since my husband is now finding himself with copious amounts of free time on his hands and since Bethany Pres (the church we're now going to, the church I am a member of from my college days) needed an extra male chaperon on their mission trip, he spent the past week helping them out. He had a fantastic time, and said it was a really healing experience--seeing a very healthy youth ministry, a ministry and church that cares about depth, not just entertaining kids. The youth director there is a friend of ours from Fuller, and the group he helped was led by Missy, one of our dear friends and bridesmaids from our wedding. They stayed at a church here in Seattle and during the day the 44 kids were split into teams of 7 or 8 and served at various spots around the city. His team spent the week at a retirement home doing landscaping and yard work for them.

Friday he flew down to San Luis Obispo for a job interview which was Saturday morning. He comes back super late tonight, and has had an incredible time. He loves the town, really enjoyed the committee, got to rent a board and surf yesterday and today, and said that even if we don't get this job it has been such a healing and life-giving weekend for him. It was so encouraging to see a church doing youth ministry the way we've been trained, and just to know there are still churches out there that would be willing to have conversations with him is always encouraging. His voice on the phone last night sounded happier than I have heard him in 7 months. So I don't know what this means, but I am so grateful for this time he's had in California.

I spent the week here, visiting with a couple different friends, putting the house back together after company last week, going on walks every day (you're right, Mom, they do make me feel better!) still napping, helping a friend wedding dress shop, and just enjoying the house to myself for awhile! My best friend from Portland drove up Friday to spend the night with me, and took me to get pedicures yesterday which was a fantastic treat :) Yesterday I video chatted with Miss Lily and she was cracking me up--that is a kid with a lot of personality! I am still "jah-jah" (or however you would spell her rendition of "Sarah") and I am very excited that Auntie Jah-Jah and Uncle Ca-ca (her name for "Charles") get to go play with her in person in about 2 weeks. Her newest obsession is mommy's heels. Except she wants mommy to be wearing them, not her. Megan said that she was eating breakfast in her boxers the other day and Lily brought the heels to her saying "mommy, shoes!" You can never be too stylish. Even in pajamas. She's also learned the word "no" and now everything is "no" even when it's really a "yes." Not sure how I feel about this particular stage! This kid is part fish--she started swimming lessons last week and LOVES the water. Even sprinklers. Seriously, how cute is she?? (this is after her first experience with the backyard sprinkler).

After so many people recommending it, I'm finally reading the book Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I'm still not entirely sure what it's about (only on chapter 2) but the writing is so beautiful it makes my heart ache. The way words are used, sentences formed, images employed--I am in love and almost don't care what the story is about.

I've also been in LOVE with summer produce and colors in my vegetable drawer this week. I cannot get enough of this beautiful food! I started buying mango for the first time, and am quite enjoying it (it's on the lists of things that are great for baby's development, so I figured I should try it). I've been going through strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, pesto, basil, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, and artichokes like nothing else these days. Here are a few of the meals I've been making with these ingredients--I'd highly recommend any of them!

Double Tomato Bruschetta
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Turkey Pesto Paninis

Okay, that's enough rambling for the day--you're probably sick of reading this anyways! Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Taking a Deep Breath

Sometimes we find ourselves at a place in life where we realize we have forgotten how to breathe. We have run so hard and so intensely for so long that we forget how to sit still, how to ignore the to-do list, and how to take a few slow, deep breaths. I find myself in just such a place this morning, my first morning since arriving here in Seattle two weeks ago with nothing I "have" to be doing, no major house projects, not really any more unpacking, no family members or company in town--I find myself with time to just sit. I think I need it too. Part of me says "you should be calling friends who you've ignored during this time of transition," or "you should be grading papers," or "you should go up to the church to help your husband out with some things." But I know I don't have energy for any of these things this morning. I literally haven't stopped running since we arrived here two weeks ago today, and I am exhausted. I made it to a local coffee shop, and here I sit, watching the sun peek through the clouds enjoying a comfortable couch (since ours haven't arrived yet) and am reflecting on the past few weeks.

Moving and life transitions are always stressful, and while we are so excited to be here, and are confident that this is the place God has called us, we still would like to be able to get to a grocery store (or the church for that matter) without getting lost or reaching for the map. It would be awesome if somehow all the names of the new people we're meeting could be miracled into our memories and we didn't have to ask people for the 5th time "remind me what your name is again!" It would be great if the rest of our furniture would arrive so we'd have something to sit on in our living room! (Saturday--it's all coming Saturday...) Transitions take patience, and those of you who know me well know that patience might not be one of my strongest virtues.

Yet at the same time, we already love it here. We love the random coffee shops that pepper each neighborhood (having an Uptown Espresso near my house could end up a dangerous thing for me!) We love the location of our home--we can be at Target/Bed, Bath, and Beyond/Barnes & Noble/and a host of other stores within about 7 minutes, we can be at the church in 10 minutes (when we don't make any wrong turns), the West Seattle Bridge in about 5 minutes, downtown Seattle in about 15 minutes, the airport in about 15 minutes, and Uptown Espresso in about 5 :) We both absolutely LOVE our house--really really love it and feel ridiculously blessed to be living in a space we love so much. We've met some of our new neighbors and have already shared a meal and a game of Ticket to Ride with them which was delightful. We love that I already have some friends and community here outside the church who know me really well, and want to get to know Charles--we shared a meal with Darbee and Reagan Monday night, are going to get together with the youth director and his wife from my "home" church here, and I am cooking dinner with Missy tonight. Next week I hope to see Heather and Jen, and begin rekindling friendships here in addition to making new ones at the church. We are SO SO grateful for all the hard work my parents, sister, brother in law, and aunts and uncle did this past weekend helping us decorate our home. Charles was launched head first into an insane first week of work so he was gone almost all weekend, but was able to come home to walls painted, pictures hung, window shades hung in some of the rooms etc. He was able to take some time off on Saturday afternoon to bond with my dad over building storage shelves in the garage (and a pantry for me in the garage--which I am very excited about--even more excited that my parents took me to Costco on Sunday to fill it for us). We've worked really hard, and all but one room is pretty much done, and we love how warm and cozy our house feels to us. We hope to use it to bless others, to share hospitality with those who need a good conversation over a hot meal. Last night we had our first youth leader staff meeting at our home, and had about 20 people there, which was a bit crowded but so fun for us (and proved to be quite motivating to get rid of the last of the boxes--or at least throw them in the garage!)

It really has been an incredible couple weeks. We miss friends in Pasadena, but we are confident that this is where we are to be. Charles' parents come on Saturday for 3 nights, but after that we're looking forward to having a bit of time to settle in to our new weekly routine, to have a weekend to go play and explore together, to see what our "normal" life might end up looking like here. We are looking forward to taking a few more deep breaths, returning some of the phone calls from friends far away, exploring this new city we find ourselves in.

For those who are curious or who care, here are some of the highlights from our last two weeks in photos--time with my family, new photos of my adorable niece Lily who came to "help" as well, and some photos of the work we've been doing around here.

We were SO blessed to have such an amazing moving crew help us haul our stuff in and reassemble our furniture--made up of friends from college and friends from the church it was very fun to see our two worlds intermingle.

Cheers! We survived putting together Ikea bookshelves!My unpacked kitchenLily is here! She's all ready to help paint!First we'll start by climbing the ladder with PapaAunt Patty and Beth paint two walls in my stairwell a warm brown color--it was everyone's favorite color by the end of the painting day--this lighting isn't the best, but here's the finished product:Uncle Bill, Aunt Patty, my mom and Aunt Beth painted one wall in my kitchen a shade of greenHere's that finished product (with the window blinds my dad installed, the photos my dad took that my mom hung, and the table runner Megan and Nathan gave us as a house warming gift)Megan rolls blue on our living room walls while my dad entertains his granddaughter--he was trying to convince her to take a nap with him in this chair, but she would have none of it. He laid his head back to close his eyes and opened them to Lily trying to shove her pacifier in his mouth. If Papa wanted to take a nap he needed her pacifier, and she will share!So I had this vision for what I wanted on one of my living room walls. I had no idea this vision was going to be so complicated to execute, but Megan and Nathan were amazing and without complaining got to work. I wanted a family and friends photo gallery. The mathematicians of the family took this job very seriously and it is one of my favorite things in my home, it is exactly what I wanted! It involved calculators, sketching, levels, and a lot of measuring. Lily "helped" by playing with her mommy's cell phone while mommy worked on the calculator.The finished product--it makes me so happy to look at!
The reading nook of our family room, Lily and I sharing early morning snuggles in the swivel chairI love this baby girlOur entry way was a mess. We want people to take off their shoes in our new house but we didn't have a bench or anywhere for them to go. So yesterday I finished up that area:Welcome to our home! The guest room door is closed at the end of the hall because that room is an absolute wreck still!Friday was painting day. Saturday Aunt Beth and Aunt Peggy came back for wall decorating. They stretch fabric over painters canvases to create 3 wall panels that I love.Megan made us throw pillows out of leftover fabricLily tests out the pillows for us--you can see the one green wall behind her, we did the one wall green and left the others, but did the purple and green panels on the opposite wallOne of my favorite new items--mom and dad bought us a wine rack with a space to hang our wine glasses and a case of wine from Costoc (where they sell my very favorite red wine, Menage a Trois) Lily isn't the best at sitting still for stories yet. Here's grandma trying to read her a story:and here is Lily climbing the stairs instead of listeningMy dad ended up hurt the first night he was there, so he wasn't able to use his right hand very well. Instead he was given Lily-duty, which of course Papa didn't mind very much! He and Lily are already ridiculously good friends--she follows her Papa everywhere which is quite adorable. She found my mini muffin tin one night in a drawer, and they found the scrabble tiles, so they spent the weekend making "muffins" together. They'd fill the muffin tins with the tiles, and using one of my spatulas they would "stir" the muffins (which really was whacking the tin and banging on it).
He even taught her to "bake" them in the oven (the bottom shelf of the end table).